The Worldwide Church of God, under the dedicated biblical management of Herbert W. Armstrong, published the Plain Truth magazine as an excellent way to help preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. The Plain Truth blog hopes to help share world news in light of biblical prophecy in that same holy spirit.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Gay Marriage - From a Different Perspective

Despite the people who voted in an election to ban same sex marriage in numerous states and despite the fact that it passed in every state (even in the most liberal states), activist judges have thrown away the will of the American majority and have ruled in favor of their own will. Thursday marked a day for rejoicing for the few same sex couples who have been advocating marriage for the last several years. That days also marked a day for psychological shock, grief, and disbelief for the overwhelming majority of Americans who voted to keep marriage a sacred relationship between one man and one woman.

Marriage is more than a piece of paper. It's more than tax credits and other government benefits. Marriage as described Biblically is a covenant relationship that represents Christ and the Church. There are numerous verses in the Bible that talk about marriage. There are also verses in the Bible that condemn homosexuality altogether. As a matter of fact God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the rampant sexual sins there (both homosexual and heterosexual). While I will not discuss the negative verses about homosexuality today, let's do look at a few others that describe the marriage relationship as it compares to God's relationship to us:

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:22-33

Another thing you do: You flood the LORD's altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. "I hate divorce," says the LORD God of Israel, "and I hate a man's covering himself with violence as well as with his garment," says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith. Malachi 2: 13-16

In the first set of verses Paul was referring to man as head of the household as a symbol of Christ as head of the church. With gay marriage, this is not possible. With the second set of verses, God declared that divorce was not a thing that was supposed to happen. When God created man and then created a woman for that man He distinctly told them to be fruitful and multiply. God had a plan for the world to be populated or to "fill the Earth" as we may read in numerous Bible verses throughout the Old Testament.

The plan for man all along was to have mate, produce offspring, and serve the Creator. Gay marriage offers none of this. Two married men or two married women cannot biologically have children together and they cannot serve God in the way that the original plan was laid out.

Now, divorce among heterosexuals and especially Christian couples is not right either. Divorce was not in God's plan. Neither was war, famine, disease, or any other thing. Because man sinned against his Creator, he brought about this curse that we live with to this day.

However some may think of homosexuality, we must think of it in a different light. Recently I was reading a publication from Rose Publishing (www.rosepublishing.com) and read a sentence that made a perfectly good statement about the sin of homosexuality. I have a different view of this subject since I read the pamphlet.

It does equate homosexuality as sin because the Bible condemns it as sin, but it also states that homosexual sin is no worse than heterosexual sin. In other words two "gay" men living together is no different than a man and his girlfriend living together out of wedlock or having sexual relations out of wedlock. There is no difference at all. Sin is sin. God does not see specific sins as an order of bad to worse to worst. They're all the same. Murder, theft, sexual sins, etc. They are all sins.

As Christians we must remember that we cannot force anyone to change. That goes for homosexuals. So many times, Christians try to preach to homosexuals and get them to change, but it just doesn't work that way. No one can be forced to change. The only thing a Christian can do is pray for that person and offer to talk to them. If they reject the talk, then let it go. Making them talk about it or trying to get them to see things your way. That can further turn them away from God rather than bring them closer to Him.

So, are people born gay? The answer is yes, and no. Some modern scientists think that certain genes control the direction of sexual orientation. A mother's hormones may even affect an unborn child's sexual outcome according to some. However, no one has ever proven the "gay gene" at all. The Rose Publishing pamphlet that I mentioned earlier explained it this way:

If a genetic link to homosexuality does exist and were found, people are still held to accountability to God and His moral code. An example is given: People who may struggle with alcohol problems might possibly be genetically predisposed to alcoholism, but are still held to God's moral code of accountability regarding the Biblical topic of alcohol abuse. Other reasons that a person may be gay include early sexual experiences, absent father of mother during early childhood, poor family relationships, prenatal hormones,seduction, sexual abuse as a child, poor family relationships, etc.

There is good news in this report though. Anyone can change. Yes there are organizations out there who are made up of former homosexuals who gave their life to Christ, have a regular family, and are advocates for binging homosexuals to the freedom they found in salvation.

Now that the state of California has betrayed its voters with a vow of legalizing same sex marriage, we must remember that most homosexuals whether they know it or not are hurting from possibly a bad past experience or some reason that made them like they are. They cannot help but think that they were born that way because that is what sinful human secular society teaches through Hollywood gurus, talk shows, soap operas, and the like. Society has it out for hurting people, but the only one who can truly help now is Christ. While the voters cannot control the judges political viewpoints that they act upon so often, we can pray about the situation and help those who are hurting. Many people do not understand homosexuality. It is a sin and it is wrong. But then all of us are sinners and none of us are worthy to see the Kingdom of Heaven one day when Jesus returns, He did make it possible for us to come to Him free of sin and free of evil because of what He did on the cross so many years ago. Anyone can change. Anyone for any reason. If Osama Bin Laden or Adolf Hitler, or some other notorious villain were to have gotten down on their knees and prayed to God for forgiveness and asked for salvation, they would have received it. Most secular society, especially homosexuals see God as this monster who controls and condemns, but He is a God of love, mercy and forgiveness if we just ask. Yes God does judge, but He gives us time and opportunity to come to Him and never judges without giving us a chance to make things right with him - no matter what we have going on in life.

Because man messed up so many things so many years ago when he and his wife Eve sinned against God, we have death and suffering today. However the reason that Jesus came was to set things right again and regain what was lost so long ago. One day He will return again. How will you receive Him now - and then?

2 comments:

First of all 4 of the liberal judges were republicans. Secondly, Marriage is a basic civil right that should be attainable by all Americans if they choose. For those who stll have a problem with this check out our short, produced to educate & defuse the controversy. It has a way of opening closed minds & provides some sanity on the issue: www.OUTTAKEonline.com

About Me

It is not in Germany's mind today, or its present peaceful people, to wage war against us, but that will all change overnight, after a head-on collision with the Islamic leader of a confederation of Muslim states, their mahdi, whetting Europe's appetite for more blood and morphing the EU into THE BEAST. They will destroy all Muslim opposition with a vengeance.

Whereas most Germans are not aware of vile intentions of influential Germans under Jesuit influence to revive the unholy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the Fourth Reich, to embark on a new crusade into the Middle East, Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall bares their grand design before the world: the German-Assyrians will strike again!

The Atlantic Times, regardless of whether or not they believe any of this prophetic scenario possible, owes it to their readers to address this issue that is most serious to a growing number of Bible-believing Christians and many Jews. Can we trust them to deliver?